


Somewhere in the Darkness [Fear]

by aceofjapan



Series: YOI Angst Week Ficlets [3]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Attempted Murder, Blood and Gore, Don't copy to another site, Healing, M/M, Violence, YOI Angst Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:55:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26825509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aceofjapan/pseuds/aceofjapan
Summary: This shout was what it took to wake Victor up, bolting upright in bed next to him, hand already reaching for the lamp on the nightstand.Dim, warm light suffusing the bedroom, Victor turned to Yuuri, expecting to offer him his arms for a calming hug after another nightmare.He was not expecting a shape clad in black standing over the bed, blade in hand, and so much blood.Promo Drabble for YOI Angst Week 2020 (December 7-13).
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Series: YOI Angst Week Ficlets [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1954669
Comments: 17
Kudos: 84
Collections: YOI Angst Week 2020





	Somewhere in the Darkness [Fear]

**Author's Note:**

> Hi friends,
> 
> This was written as a promo drabble for **YOI Angst Week 2020, which takes place on December 7-13**! Specifically for Day 3 and the prompt Fear!
> 
> As such, please heed the warnings.
> 
> This drabble was loosely inspired by [zombubble's](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zombubble/pseuds/Zombubble) absolutely lovely Royalty AU, The Nature of Things. Thank you for your support in this! 💕
> 
> You can find out more about YOI Angst Week on [Twitter](http://twitter.com/yoiangstweek/) and [Tumblr](http://yoiangstweek.tumblr.com). 
> 
> Enjoy!

Victor didn‘t hear the dark shape creeping into their bedroom at night, near soundless. 

He wasn‘t a particularly deep sleeper, but then he also hadn‘t been raised from birth to constantly watch his back, and all his other sides, for all kinds of threats lurking, the way that Yuuri had been.

It came with the territory of being royalty, the extreme caution and mistrust against everyone that could not be called paranoia for the sole reason that it was completely justified.

It wasn‘t what Victor‘s life had been like, so he didn’t hear the whispering steps, didn‘t hear the shallow, barely audible breaths of a third person in their bedroom, didn‘t hear the feathersoft glide of a blade out of its sheath.

And maybe Yuuri didn‘t exactly hear them, either—hearing was probably too generous a word. It was maybe more of a kind of instinct, a gut feeling, that made Yuuri jolt awake half a second before the strike.

Half a second that could mean the difference between life and death.

It was just enough time to try and twist his body out of the way of the blade, a half-formed shout on his lips. 

This shout was what it took to wake Victor up, bolting upright in bed next to him, hand already reaching for the lamp on the nightstand. 

Dim, warm light suffusing the bedroom, Victor turned to Yuuri, expecting to offer him his arms for a calming hug after another nightmare.

He was not expecting a shape clad in black standing over the bed, blade in hand, and so much blood. 

There was nothing but static in Victor‘s head, sleep-addled and paralysed with fear, but his body sprung into action of its own accord without losing a second‘s time.

He launched himself at the figure, jumping over Yuuri‘s prone body, trying not to see all the red—so much red—collecting on the bed.

The assassin staggered backwards under Victor‘s weight and there was a quick, fierce scuffle for the knife which brought Victor a few deep, painful gashes on his arms and his palm, but ended with the grip of the knife nestled firmly in Victor‘s hand. 

Victor may not be a trained fighter, but he knew enough for this.

Slashing viciously, he drove the assassin back against the wall, having only a split-second to decide when he saw the glove-clad fingers twitch toward what was no doubt another weapon hidden inside the clothes. 

He brought his hand down, burying the dagger to the hilt in the figure‘s chest.

There was a second of stillness as the figure slumped and Victor let go of the knife like it had burned him.

Then he whirled around.

“Yuuri!“

Kneeling by his fiancé’s bedside, he was relieved to note that the prince‘s—Yuuri‘s—eyes were open, but they were wide with fear and glassy with something that Victor didn‘t want to name.

“Yuuri—god—let me see“, Victor pressed out, gently pulling Yuuri‘s hand away from where it was pressed against his own neck. 

His entire palm was red and slick with blood, more seeping out from a too deep gash in his skin, that Victor immediately pressed his own hand against, applying as much pressure as he dared without risking choking Yuuri. 

“Shit“, he hissed, “shit“, and looked around, toward the closed door of their bedroom. 

How the Royal Guard and the people who were supposed to make their fucking living protecting the prince had still not reacted to the commotion, he could not comprehend.

"Help!“, he shouted over his shoulder, not daring to leave Yuuri‘s side even for a second, "Someone help us!“

It took only a few moments now for the door to burst open and Yuuri‘s bodyguard and a few people from the Royal Guard to file into the room, a few precious moments that Victor made use of by holding Yuuri‘s gaze as steady as he could.

Yuuri‘s gaze was still wide-eyed, scared, his fingers weak where they grasped at Victor‘s arm, his lips moving soundlessly.

"Shh“, Victor whispered to him, gently, "shhh, it‘s okay, my love. You‘re going to be okay.“

He could hear the waver in his own voice, how it cracked on the last words and he wondered how Yuuri was supposed to believe him. 

Victor didn’t bother turning around when the guards burst into the room, focusing on Yuuri instead, holding on to his hand with a soothing gesture when he flinched at the sudden noise and movement. He didn’t see the guards, but knew they would be taking in the situation, he was sure. 

He did not expect Satoshi’s, Yuuri’s bodyguard’s, voice behind him, shouting what was almost an order. 

“Step away from His Highness, Nikiforov.”

Victor didn’t move an inch except to cast a disbelieving glare at him. 

“You are joking, right? No, I will not be moving, and you’re going to get some help, get an actual healer, for God’s sake, unless you wish to see your Crown Prince bleed out!”

When Satoshi opened his mouth to argue, Victor swept his gaze over the members of the Royal Guard that had stormed into the room with him, glancing uncertainly between the assassin crumpled on the floor and Victor.

“What are you waiting for?”, Victor snarled, “Go!”

And thankfully two of them at least rushed out of the room, their hurried steps receding down the corridor, while the others moved warily toward the assassin, checking his pulse and divesting him of any remaining weapons.

Only Satoshi was still standing, staring down at Victor, hand on the haft of his sword, and Victor bared his teeth at him.

“What’s your problem?”, he snapped, “I wasn’t the one who _somehow_ let an assassin into the Crown Prince’s bedchambers!”

Before he could go on, however, his attention was diverted by Yuuri’s fingers briefly tightening around his own, and Victor turned back to focus on his fiancé once more.

Yuuri looked distressed and way too pale under all that blood, and his lips were moving again, though he didn’t manage any more sound than gasping for breath. 

“Sorry, my love, I’m sorry”, Victor whispered, swallowing against the sudden lump in his throat. “Help is on the way, alright? Just hold on a little longer for me.”

Yuuri’s eyes were growing hazier, eyelids drooping heavier with every passing second, and it made Victor’s blood run cold as he squeezed Yuuri’s fingers hard, trying to anchor him.

“Please, darling, just… just a little longer.” His whispers, urgent and rough in his throat. “You’ll be alright, I promise.”

Thankfully it really is only a matter of moments more before a healer appears in the door, kit in hand, closely followed by the Royal Guards who were sent for them. 

Victor doesn’t dare breathe a sigh of relief yet, every muscle of his body still tense with fear, but he moves aside and, only at the healer’s signal, removes his hand from the wound in Yuuri’s neck. 

He retreats just enough to give the healer free reign to work, but hovers closely nearby, eyes still fixed on Yuuri’s that are still growing dimmer by the moment.

Victor tries to suppress his panicked gasps whenever they flutter shut momentarily.

Blood is cooling sticky and heavy on his palms, and Victor feels like all his own warmth is draining with it, until there’s nothing left but ice cold tendrils of fear dragging at his limbs, stabbing sharply into his chest when Yuuri’s eyes blink heavily, once, twice, and close.

The healer doesn’t falter in their rapid but methodical movements, though, so Victor clings to that fact with his entire being, the thought spinning in circles in his mind that _this can’t be it_.

His gaze is trained on Yuuri, affixed to him, unable to be torn away as he looks for the slightest sign of movement, of breaths from his fiancé, trying to hold on to his sanity, because if this is it, if he’s witnessed Yuuri’s eyes closing for the last time, unable to save him despite being right there next to him, he knows there’s no way he’s not going to break.

But then, finally, finally, there’s that tell-tale feeling of magic being woven, that slight tugging on Victor’s gut, like some of the air is being sucked out of the room, centred on the spot where the healer’s hand rests against Yuuri’s neck. 

The healer has cleaned of some of the smeared mess of blood on Yuuri’s skin, and now that the magic is stopping the blood flow, Victor can see the gash clearly. It’s not long, extending on the left side of his neck, though obviously deep enough to do some damage. 

Seeing the edges of the wound grotesquely gaping open before the magic begins to weave the tissue closed makes Victor shudder. Unbidden, the image appears in front of his mind’s eye what would have happened if Yuuri had not woken up in time--had not woken Victor up.

The image of Yuuri, his throat cut from ear to ear, cold and still, and Victor waking up in a bed drenched in blood. 

A sob escapes him before he can hold it back, but as he raises his hands to cover his mouth, stifle his desperate noises, all he sees is more blood, dark red and flaking now on his palms, and it just makes him tremble even more.

Fists clenched at his sides and lips pressed together against any sound that may escape him, he stands, staring at Yuuri, unaware of the other people in the room, of Satoshi and the Royal Guard, of the rest of the royal family that has long since been roused from their sleep and gathered around the edges of the room. 

Victors entire awareness is narrowed down to that one point of focus, Yuuri, and the healer’s hand on his throat.

Until finally, after a short eternity, that subtle pull in Victor’s stomach lets up, and the faint hum of magic that he only ever notices when it ceases, disappears. 

The healer sits back, his posture relaxing ever so slightly as his fingers shift on Yuuri’s neck to feel his pulse. 

The gash in Yuuri’s skin has been knitted shut, still angry red and swollen, but there is no more blood. There is, yes, now Victor can see it, the gentle rise and fall of Yuuri’s chest as he breathes.

The healer turns, looking up at Victor with a tired smile.

“He’ll be out of it for a while”, they say, “He’s lost quite a lot of blood. But he’ll survive.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. 
> 
> You can find me on [Twitter](http://twitter.com/nihidea_art), and I have a [Discord server](https://discord.gg/qEPUbsr) that has a dedicated section for Angst Week, if you're interested!
> 
> There are more promo drabbles coming over the next weeks, so if you're into that, don't forget to subscribe to the series!
> 
> In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comment section! Thank you for reading! 💜💜💜


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